


In Which Yuuri is Compelled to Seek His Fortune

by OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor



Series: Victor's Moving Castle [2]
Category: Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Howl's Moving Castle told with YoI characters, I'm committed now, chapter two peeps, enjoy the ride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 15:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9826454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor/pseuds/OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor
Summary: Chapter Two of the Howl's Moving Castle/Yuri!!! On Ice story. This is where things really get started, as Yuuri is forced to seek his fortune, even if he is the eldest of three.





	

           “What,” Yuuri asks flatly, staring at his brother. It looked like Phichit. But, he mused, if it was Phichit, there would be a lot more fidgeting. Phichit always fidgeted when he thought he was in trouble. Otabek, however, waited for judgement with perfect calm. The figure across from him waited for Yuuri’s response with Phichit’s face and Otabek’s composure.

            “I let Phichit’s hamsters out and they chewed a hole in his favorite pair of socks. I never told Phichit that, did you?”

            “No,” said Yuuri slowly, trying to wrap his head around the situation.

            “I’ve been worried about you visiting. I knew I’d have to tell you,” Otabek said. “But I’m still glad you came.” Was there a touch of reproach in his voice? “Promise me you won’t tell. You won’t tell if you give your word.”

            “I promise,” Yuuri said automatically. “But, why?”

            “Phichit and I talked it out. He wants to learn magic and I don’t. Phichit’s smart and charming, and he wanted a future where he can use his talents. But mother wouldn’t listen to that.”

            “Why didn’t you tell me you felt this way?” Yuuri asked. That Phichit and Otabek had been hiding something like this from him stung a little bit.

            “Because you’re still hung up on the youngest being the one to make something of themselves. I want to get married and have 10 children.”

            “What?!” Yuuri spluttered. “I never knew…” Otabek shrugged. “We couldn’t talk you out of this ‘eldest of three’ mindset.”

            “Why do you look like Phichit?” Yuuri asked, to take the focus off himself. He couldn’t process the things Otabek was saying right now.

            “Spell. He looks like me, I look like him. It will wear off gradually. Only took me two weeks to find,” Otabek said proudly. “Then I asked to come visit, and we switched.” Yuuri just nodded.

            “10 children, Beka?” The other boy nodded, a shy smile on his face. Yuuri shook his head in disbelief.

            “You’re too young!” he blurted.

            “Now, yes,” Otabek said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But I need to start soon if I want 10, and this gives me time to see if the person I want likes me as Otabek, not Phichit.” Yuuri just shook his head again.

            “I never knew.” Otabek clapped him on the shoulder.

            “It’s all right, Yuuri. But we were worried about you.”

            “Me?” Yuuri asks in surprise. Otabek nods.

            “For good reason,” Otabek says sadly.

            “What?” Yuuri squawks. “I’m doing fine,” he insists, without much force.

            “Yuuri, it took you months to come see me. And you look like everything scares you, even me.”

            “It’s just a little dull, is all,” Yuuri mutters. “But we’ve been busy.”

            “Because you’re brilliant in the kitchen,” Otabek says. “I’ve heard the talk. And Minako takes advantage of you being there to go out.”

            “She’s allowed to have some fun, after raising us,” Yuuri said quietly. “Besides, we all know I’ll inherit the onsen…” Otabek sighed.

“Listen—“ But at that moment, another apprentice poked his head around the corner.

“Phichit! New baking’s up, grab some people so we can get it out!” the apprentice called, giving Otabek a flirtatious wink. Yuuri wondered if this was the one Otabek liked. But he didn’t get a chance to ask, as Otabek started hauling pastries to the front of the shop.         

“You’ve got to do something for yourself, Yuuri,” Otabek said. “Phichit was right to worry what would happen if we weren’t around to give you some respect…” Before Otabek could say anything else, he was whisked away in the busy-ness of the shop. Yuuri slipped away. He needed to be alone to think, so he ran home.

            There was lots of time to think. In the middle of the day, when there weren’t many customers, Minako would go “out” and Yuuri would stay in the kitchen, chatting to his ingredients and telling them what delicious dishes they were going to become. But he wasn’t satisfied, and he felt trapped in the little kitchen. Some days, he _almost_ convinced himself to set out to seek his fortune, before remembering that he was the eldest of three, and it was utterly pointless. He stopped talking to his ingredients, and even though his technique didn’t change, the quality of his cooking still seemed to suffer.  

            The one lone customer in the shop raised his hand to get Yuuri’s attention. With a sigh, Yuuri wandered over to the table, pasting a smile on his face.

            “I ordered this same dish last week and _this_ tastes nothing like that!” the man said belligerently. “What changed?”

            “Nothing changed about the dish, sir, but I’m sorry it’s not to your liking. Can I bring you something else instead?”

            “Not if the same person is going to be cooking it,” the man muttered.

            “That wouldn’t matter,” Yuuri said before he could stop himself. “You’ve covered your food in so much salt and pepper that anything would taste awful.” The man glared at Yuuri, then stormed out of the onsen. The rule was: lose your temper, lose a customer. Yuuri had just brilliantly proven that rule. It was a little frightening to realize just how much he had enjoyed it.

            Yuuri didn’t have any time to recover before the next big life-changing event, though he didn’t recognize it as such at the time. A well-dressed man swept into the shop, trailed by another, bland-faced man who seemed vaguely horrified by everything. It only took Yuuri one glance to know that nothing in this inn would satisfy such a man. Yuuri closed his eyes, just for a moment, to gather himself before dealing with this new problem. Because this customer would definitely be a problem. His clothes screamed wealth, and cocky attitude practically poured off him. Yuuri gamely pushed his glasses up his nose before approaching.

            “Hello, what can I get for you today?” Yuuri asked, infusing his voice with as much politeness as he could manage. The new comer arched an eyebrow, staring at Yuuri for a long moment. Yuuri fought the urge to fidget under the intense stare. The vague-faced man let out a whine that earned him a sharp glare from his companion.

            “So you’re the upstart that thinks he can challenge me? Well, Mr. Katsuki, let me tell you, you do not even begin to rival the Witch of the Waste, JJ!” He winked and threw a double J hand signal. Yuuri gasped.

            “The Witch of the Waste?” Yuuri gasped, and his voiced seemed to have gone all crackly and funny from fear.

            “Don’t act so surprised, dear,” JJ continued. “What did you expect, challenging the Witch of the Waste? That I would ignore your impudence?” JJ laughed loudly, causing his companion to flinch.

            “But... what did I do?” Yuuri asked in a quavery voice.

            “Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you,” JJ said. “Also, you won’t be able to tell anyone you’re under a curse.” He threw a wink over his shoulder at Yuuri, sweeping out of the onsen with as much drama as he had entered it. Yuuri put a hand to his face, trying to figure out what JJ was talking about, and why his companion had such a horrified look on his face as he trailed out of the onsen after the storm that was the Witch of the Waste, JJ. His face felt funny, wrinkled and crepey. Yuuri dropped his hands down to stare at them. Visible veins looped around knobby knuckles, covered by paper-thin skin. Yuuri hobbled to a mirror, and stared at his own face. It had to be his own face, though now it was the face of an old man. Only his eyes remained mostly unchanged, wide and brown, reflecting his confusion in the mirror.

            “Well, I can’t stay here like this,” Yuuri muttered to himself. “Minako would have a fit! I suppose there is nothing for it but to set out to seek my fortune, and hope that there is not much worse that can happen to me!” Yuuri hobbled around the onsen, packing himself some food and a change of clothes, finding that he was still quite mobile, though his joints didn’t work as smoothly as they once did.

            “Well, at least you seem to be in good shape for your age,” he told himself. Once he was satisfied with his preparations, he locked the door of the onsen with a pang of regret. It was the only home he’d ever known. But he turned away and tromped gamely out of town. He didn’t know where he was going, but he figured he could figure that out when he got there. As he climbed into the hills, Yuuri decided that he really should have found a walking stick. His now-old joints weren’t overly fond of the incline.

            Shortly after this realization, Yuuri spotted a likely looking stick poking out of a hedge and made a bee line for it. A couple good tugs revealed that the stick was actually attached to a rather weathered scarecrow. Yuuri propped him upright. 

            “Well then, my friend, you might actually look worse for the wear than I do! But at least you’re upright now. Perhaps you’ll be able to find your back to the field where you belong. Now, if I weren’t the eldest of three, you would come to life and help me out on my journey. But one can’t expect magical help when they’re the eldest of three seeking their fortune… Farewell, friend!” Yuuri called as he continued up into the hills. He stopped sometime around midday and ate some of the steamed buns he had packed.

            “Would you look at that!” he exclaimed to himself. “Here I’ve been walking for hours, and I’m barely above the chimney tops!” A rustle in the bushes sent a jolt of fear through Yuuri’s heart. “But I’m an old man,” he argued with himself, “it won’t do to scared by random sounds in the bushes.” So he turned to investigate. A scrawny dog was caught in the bushes, a sturdy stick twisted viciously into a rope around its neck.

            “Poor thing,” Yuuri murmured. He’d always loved dogs, and cried for days when the family dog had died. “Here, let me get you loose,” Yuuri said soothingly. He felt in his pockets, finding his handy knife, and started sawing at the rope around the dog’s neck. It was quite a process. Yuuri had to be quite careful, and the dog kept trying to squirm away from him. Yuuri talked soothingly to it as he worked, telling it about his life in the onsen and how his age had finally compelled him to seek his fortune. The rope broke with a snap, and the dog bolted.      

            “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to share my lunch?” Yuuri called after it, but the dog was long gone. He sighed. “Well, if I shan’t have your company, at least you still left me a present.” The stick that had been twisted into the rope around the dog’s neck turned out to be a proper iron-tipped walking stick. Yuuri stumped gamely on, chatting to his new walking stick as he went.

            “You know, that’s two encounters now, and not a bit of magical help. It comes of being the eldest of three, I suppose. Should know better than to set out to seek my fortune. But I couldn’t very well stay looking like this, now could I?” Yuuri said. The sun began to sink and so did Yuuri’s spirits as he realized he would be spending an unprepared night alone in the hills. He had almost resigned himself to it when he heard a strange grinding noise. The Wizard Victor’s castle trundled into sight. Yuuri picked up his pace. This was his chance to spend the night inside, and he was not going to let it pass him by. “Besides,” he muttered, “the wizard only goes after the young and beautiful, and while I’ve never been one, I’m certainly not the other anymore. He won’t bother me!” Panting, Yuuri managed to catch up to the castle, but found that he couldn’t get close to the door with the castle constantly moving away from him.

            “Stop, you confounded thing!” he hollered at it. To his surprise the castle actually listened. Yuuri approached the small door in the back. Thinking it must be a servant’s entrance, he tried to move around the building, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier. The same thing happened when he tried to go around the other side. The castle rumbled ominously, as if it were getting ready to move again. “Oh no you don’t!” Yuuri cried, flinging himself through the door. He found himself in a small, incredibly dirty room, from what he could see from the dim light of the fireplace.

            “ _This_ is how the Wizard Victor keeps his castle?” he muttered. “Disgraceful!” Yuuri moved toward a comfortable looking armchair in front of the fireplace. He studied the fire for a moment. “It’s almost as if you have a face,” he told it. “The green flames at the top would be your hair, and those two little blue bits your eyes, and the purple at the bottom some rather wicked looking teeth…” Yuuri shook his head and settled into the armchair. “I suppose this means I’m imposing, but, I’m sure someone as wicked as the Wizard Victor deserves to be put upon. My, being old has made me quite bold! Not that it will matter, being the eldest of three and all. Well, for tonight, this armchair and cozy fire are all the fortune I need!” And Yuuri promptly fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out on tumblr! OnceAndAlwaysEnglishMajor


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